outside her race for social and political
storyline, not any differences between
reasons (such as her statement that a
the two parents. Also, if you want to
strong black woman needs a strong
get really specific, the Night at the
black man, which leads one to think
Museum franchise features a
that she assumes someone who dates
relationship between Teddy Roosevelt
outside of the race is a race traitor).
(Robin Williams) and Sacagawea (Mizuo Peck), and despite what we
While Flipper and Angies’s
know about the real life counterparts,
relationship goes kaput, having been,
including the fact that they weren’t
aside from extramarital, only founded
even in the same time period, their
on fetishized sex in the first place
wax stand-ins weren’t written with
(with each thinking that sex with the
any racial or cultural boundaries
other would be wilder and more
interlaced between character quirks.
untamed), Lee decides to show how
Again, it’s just a relationship based on
simple love regardless of race can be,
mutual attraction.
when Paulie (Angie’s ex-boyfriend, played by John Turturro) and Orin
Will 2016 offer up any nuanced
(one of Drew’s friends) decide to
representations of interracial love? It’s
become an item with a simple
difficult to say, but hopefully in the
conversation. Paulie also had the talk
future, beyond 2016, we’ll see more
about dating outside of the race with
focus on love that doesn’t live within
his friends and family, and many of
racial guidelines.
them, he was mildly shocked to find, weren’t open to dating black women at all, at least not for a long-term commitment. This conversation, and the conversation Orin had with her friends, cements in their mind that they don’t want to be close-minded or racist at all; if love is what they wanted, then love was what they would find, whether that was with a black person, white person, or a person of any other race. 2014’s Infinitely Polar Bear, starring Mark Ruffalo and Zoe Saldana, is probably the only film in recent years to have an interracial relationship and not make it the priority of the storyline. Their characters are indeed in a relationship, but the state of their family and their children’s lives comes first and foremost in the